The Tainted Cup is a very well written fantasy mystery series starter by Robert Jackson Bennett. Released 6th Feb 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 432 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out fourth quarter 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This is an engagingly constructed classic murder mystery starting with the extremely outré death of an imperial officer. The world building and magical systems are well wrought and believable (in context).
It's a Holmes and Watson homage in some ways, with an eccentric, abrasive, and super brilliant sleuth, Ana Dolabra, who is assisted by an assistant with perfect memory recall as a sort of Watson character.
The setup seems like a bit of a everything-including-the-kitchen-sink conglomeration of genres, including a heaping dose of political fantasy, but the author has a prodigious imagination and it really manages to span mystery/fantasy/political structure as a cohesive whole.
Four and a half stars. The language and violence are R-rated, but not used egregiously. It would make an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home reading, or gift giving. A second volume is due out in 1st quarter 2025.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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